Posted on 10/21/2007 9:38:17 AM PDT by kellynla
"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. … The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom, and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. … I think that libertarianism and conservatism are traveling the same path."
– President Ronald Reagan
That quotation was appropriately reprinted on the first page of the official program for the Conservative Leadership Conference in Reno last weekend, an event that sought to rebuild the largely frayed conservative/libertarian Reagan coalition in time to spare the country from a Hillary Clinton presidency. I spoke to the group about my exit from the Republican Party, but after listening to other speakers and attendees gathered for the three-day event, I must conclude that Reagan's words no longer ring true.
Conservatives and libertarians are marching to different drummers, going on different paths going in opposite directions. The libertarians still are committed to "less government interference" and "less centralized authority," but conservatives these days are more interested in building an all-powerful central government to wage war on real and perceived enemies at home and abroad. Conservatives use the word "freedom" while they wax poetic about American military might. But the policies they promote show no sign of trusting individual Americans to live their lives as they please and every sign of trusting the government to do what is best. During the Cold War, an inspiring leader such as Reagan was able to keep internal peace, as both factions battled their mutual enemies: the Soviet empire and tax-and-spend Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Founding principles are on the front page of this forum.
Statement by the founder of Free Republic
Free Republic ^ | Jim Robinson
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1103363/posts
Posted on 03/22/2004 6:22:17 PM PST by Jim Robinson
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc..... We are not connected to or funded by any political party, news agency, or any other entity.
Did you know this is a socon site rather than a GOP site?
>>Didn’t really know that since I saw the word ‘Free’ in the name.
***You should have read the first page when you joined.
Then again, I have read my fair share of populist crap since I became a member and that populism seems to be growing in its influence.
***Maybe you joined the wrong forum.
Would you also like to doubt that SoCons are threatening to either vote third-party or sit out election day?
***I will answer your question because you answered one of mine. Note that you did not answer the question about whether you are a socon. I gather you aren’t, by your responses in this thread. Feel free to correct that assertion if it’s incorrect.
In answer to the question, I do not doubt that SoCons are threatening... blah blah blah. I would go with them and join the 3rd party if it formed in response to a tootyfruityrudy nomination. I will not sit out the election, and I doubt most socons would either. The option that’s catching on is to vote “straight republican” but at the top of the ticket, a write-in for the republican who should have gotten the nomination. 100% republican.
“Libertarians and conservatives are natural allies?”
maybe so, but when libertarians talk about legalizing illegal drugs and allowing sex with whatever and/or whomever; that’s when the commonality comes to a screeching halt at my house.
Reagan understood, Liberty requires responsibility not just self absorption.
It sounds like a chant: "LIBERTARIANS GO AWAY! BUT PLEASE COME BACK ON ELECTION DAY!"
...and strong internal security to protect us from each other, that is, law and order as a social contract.
The flip side of protecting us from each other, that is, from the villains in society, is an overreaching government that tries to protect us from *ourselves*. This strikes at the heart of Libertarianism, and individual liberty and freedom. The government has no right to try and change the people “for their own good.”
Well said, my G-d, we’ve already “achieved” the level of Sodom and Gomorrah, enough!
Like the rest of the Libertines, you want all the rights, and none of the responsibilities, of a free society.
Unfortunately for you, the world doesn’t work that way.
Keep up the good work and free thinking Joe. The Brown Shirts around here crack me up.
LBT
......
No just go away and take Ron Paul with you.
I don’t follow all the their views and you missed the ones I don’t follow. Also Ron Paul can take a flying leap.
Yes, I should have. You do realize that there is a lot of room for interpretation and possibly some ambiguity there. You would have to see this because people hear have conflict all the time and many of the positions take on contradictory stances.
Maybe you joined the wrong forum. I may have. Then again, I may be good for the forum in spite of joining it incorrectly. Or, then again, my personal views may have shifted since joining. Shall I leave? Oh, and "no!', I am not completely socially conservative. I am pro life but aside from that I seek to promote family values without coercion and through really thinking through possible market-based solutions that displace the need for government to get involved.
Libertarians stating what they think conservatives believe is almost as laughable as non-Catholics stating what they think Catholics believe...neither group has ever learned the facts, so you just make up what you think others believe as you go. Nice try, Murphy but you obviously don’t have a clue what conservatives believe...and I’m talking about true blue Conservatives not CINO’s and/or RINO’s...but don’t let the facts interfere with your demagogic rant! LMAO
Speaking of learning...
My favored candidate is Fred Thompson. Ron Paul’s position on Iraq is completely misguided, in my opinion. That’s for trying to pigeonhole me though.
Oh bulls--t. Libertarians oppose drug usage & underage/incest/bestiality sex just as much as religious conservatives do. This is another reason why the GOP is in a tail-spin, when they keep denigrating the very people who have supported them with cheap ad-hominem attacks. BTW - if the Rockefellers/socons who control the GOP want to end the drug war, all they have to do is secure the borders and stop taxpayer funding of treatment for addicts, and the problem will go away. Of course they wouldn't because that would dry up their donations from the prison/law enforcement complex.
It sound like I hit a cord that was already there and I didn’t put it there. The problem is in the mirror.
Child porno and bestiality are already illegal. Marijuana is safer than most prescription medications.
No Giuliani, no breakup.
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